The Aeropress is absolutely great, but I have the same reservations about putting 96c water through what's essentially a bunch of plastic. What I'm about to suggest is not a substitute, but there are solid glass/metal french press kits, and chemex/filtered glass/ceramic coffee setups which will make great drinks.

Once you have nailed the grinding process (with a single dose grinder for consistency, for example), the filtering parts of the procedure are 2 minutes.